• vt. 标记号于；滴答地记录
• n. 滴答声；扁虱；记号；赊欠
• vi. 发出滴答声；标以记号
• n. (Tick)人名；(匈、芬)蒂克

拟声词，模仿钟表滴答声，后引申词义打勾。

tick

tick: English now has no fewer than four distinct words tick in general use. The oldest, tick ‘mite’ [OE], comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *tik-, which may be related to Armenian tiz ‘bug’. Tick ‘sound of a clock, mark of correctness, etc’ [13] originally meant broadly ‘light touch, tap’; its modern uses are secondary and comparatively recent developments (‘sound of a clock’ appears to have evolved in the 16th century, and ‘mark of correctness’ did not emerge until the 19th century). Tickle [14] is probably a derivative. Tick ‘mattress case’ [15] was borrowed from Middle Dutch tēke, which went back via Latin thēca to Greek thékē ‘cover, case’.

And tick ‘credit’ [17] (as in on tick) is short for ticket.
=> tickle; ticket

tick (n.1)

parasitic blood-sucking arachnid animal, Old English ticia, from West Germanic *tik- (cognates: Middle Dutch teke, Dutch teek, Old High German zecho, German Zecke "tick"), of unknown origin, perhaps from PIE *deigh- "insect." French tique (mid-15c.), Italian zecca are Germanic loan-words.

tick (n.2)

mid-15c., "light touch or tap," probably from tick (v.) and cognate with Dutch tik, Middle High German zic, and perhaps echoic. Meaning "sound made by a clock" is probably first recorded 1540s; tick-tock as the sound of a clock is recorded from 1845.

tick (v.)

early 13c., "to touch or pat," perhaps from an Old English verb corresponding to tick (n.2), and perhaps ultimately echoic. Compare Old High German zeckon "to pluck," Dutch tikken "to pat," Norwegian tikke "touch lightly." Meaning "make a ticking sound" is from 1721. Related: Ticked; ticking.

To tick (someone) off is from 1915, originally "to reprimand, scold." The verbal phrase tick off was in use in several senses at the time: as what a telegraph instrument does when it types out a message (1873), as what a clock does in marking the passage of time (1777), to enumerate on one's fingers (1899), and in accountancy, etc., "make a mark beside an item on a sheet with a pencil, etc.," often indicating a sale (by 1881, from tick (n.2) in sense "small mark or dot"). This last might be the direct source of the phrase, perhaps via World War I military bureaucratic sense of being marked off from a list as "dismissed" or "ineligible." Meaning "to annoy" is recorded by 1971.

tick (n.3)

"credit," 1640s, shortening of ticket (n.).

1. He sat listening to the tick of the grandfather clock.

他坐在那儿，听着落地式大摆钟嘀嗒作响。

来自柯林斯例句

2. I wound up the watch and listened to it tick.

我给表上紧发条，听着它嘀嗒作响。

来自柯林斯例句

3. He wanted to find out what made them tick.

他想搞清楚他们为什么会那样。

来自柯林斯例句

4. Abdel felt free to tick him off for smoking too much.

阿卜杜勒动辄责骂他抽烟太凶。

来自柯林斯例句

5. Just hang on a tick, we may be able to help.

稍等一会儿，我们或许能帮上忙。

来自柯林斯例句